Robert Guerrero drops split decision to David Peralta

Whether it was the toll of age, an eye on a future fight or slipping talent, Robert Guerrero couldn’t hold off anonymous Argentine journeyman David Peralta on Saturday.

The questions now aimed at former two-division champion Guerrero, 33, are stark after Peralta’s split-decision triumph at Honda Center.

Guerrero, who lost to World Boxing Council welterweight champion Danny Garcia in February, picked up his head briefly after scorecards were read, raised a fist to a crowd of supporters and exited the ring.

The judges’ scores were 115-113 (Zachary Young), 113-115 (Jerry Cantu) and 116-112 (Max DeLuca).

Young gave Peralta seven of the last eight rounds, and DeLuca awarded Peralta each of the final eight rounds.

“I thought I clearly won the fight,” Guerrero said afterward. “For the judge to say I lost eight rounds sounds crazy to me. Peralta was very awkward, but I felt I won. I won the rounds when I boxed.

“This is very disappointing, but I’ll be back. That, you can count on.”

Gilroy’s Guerrero (33-5-1) lost to a taxi driver who hadn’t fought since May 2015.

“I told myself this was the last fight of my life, so I put everything into this sport that I love,” said Peralta, who’ll turn 34 next week. “I gave it 100%, won the fight and now I feel like I have many years to come.”

With the advantage of an extra four inches of height, Peralta (26-2-1) mounted a furious comeback.

He found a way to frustrate Guerrero after the opening rounds, stepping back from body punches he’d absorbed and scoring from distance.

Even though Guerrero delivered the defining punch to back Peralta to the ropes in the 12th round, he couldn’t make up lost ground.

Guerrero had addressed the height difference by devoting attention to pounding Peralta’s body in the first round.

Southpaw Guerrero let power punches fly in the third and cleanly struck Peralta in the head, gut and chest, sweeping the first four rounds.

But Peralta found Guerrero with straight rights in the middle rounds to close the deficit.

He then appeared to have knocked down Guerrero with back-to-back punches in the ninth, backing a falling Guerrero into a neutral ring post, which should’ve been ruled a knockdown unless referee Ray Corona believed tangled feet caused the descent.

“The referee, whatever he said, I agree,” Peralta said.

Earlier, in a meeting of two veterans who took a year off, Freddy Hernandez defeated Alfredo Angulo in a middleweight bout by unanimous decision, 98-92, 97-93, 97-93.

Mexico City’s Hernandez (32-8) steadily beat Angulo (24-6) to the punch in the early going, but “El Perro” didn’t budge, continuing to throw his heavier blows.

A series of Angulo punches in the fifth round backed Hernandez and cut him on the left eyelid, a red area puffing un- der the eye in the sixth as Angulo urged more toe-to-toe action from his 37-year-old foe.

Hernandez responded, outboxing Angulo down the stretch to win his fourth consecutive bout after losing six of seven from 2010 to 2014.

Earlier, super-welterweight Terrell Gausha’s power advantage, jab and schooling began to shine in the later rounds, and judges Cantu and Jonathan Davis awarded him a 97-93 edge over New York’s Steve Martinez while judge Young had it 95-95.

lance.pugmire@latimes.com

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